Freight traffic through the Chinese ports of Shanghai and Shenzhen dropped drastically in December 2007. For Shanghai, the drop over the corresponding month in 2007 was 6%, but in Shenzhen it was over 15%. The Hong Kong Shippers’ Council expressed horror at these figures, and predicted that there will be an even greater fall in exports from China during the coming months. Inbound freight includes raw materials which are processed into finished goods for export at the huge numbers of factories in Guangdong. All these factores are closed from Chinese New Year on 26 January until the end of February, which means there will be a dearth of exports in February and March. Overall for last year there was a growth in throughput for Shenzhen, Shanghai and Hong Kong, but the rates of growth were the lowest ever.